The Empty Bed
by Marla Fair
Summary: A short written for a Bonanza Boomers challenge based on a photo of Ben Cartwright following Joe and Adam and driving an empty wagon. Why is it that empty bed makes Joe so afraid?


Empty Bed

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Empty Bed

"Joseph! Joe!"

Joe Cartwright turned around to look. His Pa was driving the wagon and they were headed for the mercantile along with his eldest brother. From the tone and temper of the voice, he wasn't sure which one had just yelled. Pa and Adam sounded so _dang_ alike at times.

"Er...yes?" he answered without altering what he was doing.

"Joseph! Stop that horse!"

He gulped. _That_ one was pa.

Reining Cochise in, Joe pivoted in the saddle and asked, 'You want something, Pa?"

"Did I or did I not tell you I wanted to stop at the Clarion on the way to the store?"

Oops. There be dragons ahead. He honestly didn't know.

"...er...no?"

"Joseph Francis Cartwright sometimes I wonder if there is a brain in that curly head of yours," his father growled.

"Oh, he's got brains, Pa," Adam sniped, "it's just that gray matter beneath his black hat is too finely honed for everyday tasks. It's busy thinking about sharpshooters, pretty girls, and taking on both at the Bucket of Blood."

Joe knew it was coming.

Wait for it...

"Joseph! Have you been going to the Bucket without my permission? It's no place for a seventeen year old –"

 _Boy_. Pa didn't say it, but he heard it.

"Pa, I aint..."

Aren't.

Am not.

For once Adam saved him. Probably felt guilty. After all it was him that had taken him there a few days before.

"I said Joe was 'thinking' about it, Pa."

His father scowled. "So what exactly _is_ it you are thinking about that has you so distracted?"

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He lied.

Later that night, playing checkers with Hoss, he felt bad about it, but there really wasn't anything else he could have done.

He couldn't tell Pa the truth.

"Joe! Dang it!" He heard Hoss slap his thighs with his massive hands. It was so loud it was a wonder it didn't cause an earthquake. "I won!"

Joe looked at the board. He shrugged. "Guess so."

"Guess so?" Hoss threw a look across the room at his pa and older brother where they sat at the table working on bills. "Whatever is _wrong_ with you, little brother?"

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He lied again. He said it was a girl.

It wasn't.

It was...well...that empty bed. Oh, not the one in his room he was sitting beside, terrified of getting back into, but that one he'd seen as a child in Virginia City. That empty wagon bed where only a minute before a man's feet had been resting. The citizen heading up the lynch party'd struck the horse's backside and sent it flying and left the man dangling from a rope. Pa tried to shield him as they rode away, but he'd looked back.

All he could see was that empty bed where the man's feet had been.

Where _his_ feet _would_ have been if the people of Virginia City had had their way. They were gonna hang him for being an Indian lover. If Mark Burdette hadn't come along they would have. He would have been –

Lynched.

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A week had gone by.

A week of waking up in sweats every night and telling a new lie to explain them. There was a man in his dreams running after him with a shot gun. And a renegade Paiute aiming a flaming arrow. _Hell_ , he'd even told them he'd had to fight off one of Hop Sing's dragons.

Lies. All lies. The truth was –

He was just plain yellow-bellied, pigeon-hearted scared.

Joe drew a deep breath as he stared at the empty wagon bed before him. He couldn't help the shiver that went down his spine. Of a sudden, a hand fell on his shoulder. He didn't have to look. He knew who it was.

"Pa."

"Joseph. Is there something you would like to share?"

Pa's voice was quiet, like he knew it was something he wouldn't want Adam or Hoss to hear.

"I...don't know, Pa."

"Well, _I_ do. " Pa turned around and leaned against the empty wagon's side. "It's this, isn't it?"

"Oh, come on, Pa. It's an empty wagon bed..."

"In Virginia City. In front of the mercantile." His Pa hesitated. "I remember it too, son. I thought I had protected you."

A shiver ran down him. "You told me not to look."

"So you looked."

Joe dropped his head. "Stupid..."

His father planted a hand on his shoulder. "Young. Foolish. Never 'stupid', Joseph."

"I just..." He drew in air. "I just can't get that picture out of my head, Pa. That empty wagon driving away. That man _dangling_ there..."

" _You_...dangling there." When his head shot up his pa continued. "This is about what happened a short time ago in Virginia City, isn't it? With the townspeople?" His father squeezed his shoulder. "You were alone, Joe. With no one to help. There was a mob. You had every right to be frightened."

"But why can't I forget it, Pa? _Why_ is it in _every_ dream?"

His father thought a moment. "You remember, Joe, when you were little? I bought a new wagon for you and your mother and I to travel out to the lake in? " When he nodded, his pa continued. "Can you...picture that? Remember _that_ empty bed?"

Joe eyed the wagon's wooden boards. "I can try, Pa."

"How about we make a new memory to go with it?"

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Thirty minutes later they were on their way. Adam was driving and Hoss and Pa were with him in that empty wagon bed, all of them singing the most rousing rendition of 'Sweet Betsy from Pike' he'd ever heard.

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The wagon bed was in his dream again that night, but it wasn't pulling away from any dead man's feet. Instead it had two yoke of oxen, a big yeller dog, a tall rooster and one spotted hog in it singing and dancing up a storm.

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Almost made him wish it was still empty.


End file.
